Raising Chickens at Home [3 Real Reasons You Haven’t Thought Of]

The First Reason for Raising Chickens is Helping The Impoverished

A beautiful hen taking care of business (laying eggs) in her nesting box.

If you have ever wondered if you should raise poultry but came up with reason why you shouldn’t so you could find a way so you were not raising chickens then you really need to continue reading.

Having chickens can improve the lives of the poor, which lends itself to the old adage “give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a life time” which is what simply having chickens can do for those living in poverty.

I pray if you are reading this that you don’t fall into the category of poverty, but if you do or know someone who is living in poverty then chickens are a way to taking a step up.

“If you were living on $2 a day, what would you do to improve your life?

That’s a real question for the nearly 1 billion people living in extreme poverty today.

There’s no single right answer, of course, and poverty looks different in different places. But through my work with the foundation, I’ve met many people in poor countries who keep chickens, and I have learned a lot about the ins and outs of owning these birds. (As a city boy from Seattle, I had a lot to learn!)

It’s pretty clear to me that just about anyone who’s living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens.

In fact, if I were in their shoes, that’s what I would do—I would keep and breed chickens.

Here’s why:

They are easy and inexpensive to take care of. Many breeds can eat whatever they find on the ground which makes raising chickens even easier.(although it’s better if you can feed them, because they’ll grow faster).

Hens need some kind of shelter where they can nest, and as your flock grows, you might want some wood and wire to make a coop. Finally, chickens need a few vaccines. The one that prevents the deadly Newcastle disease costs less than 20 cents.

They’re a good investment. Suppose a new farmer starts with five hens. One of her neighbors owns a rooster to fertilize the hens’ eggs. After three months, she can have a flock of 40 chicks.

Eventually, with a sale price of $5 per chicken—which is typical in West Africa—she can earn more than $1,000 a year, versus the extreme-poverty line of about $700 a year.

Fresh chicken eggs are just one reward you get when you rear chickens!

They help keep children healthy. Malnutrition kills more than 3.1 million children a year.

Although eating more eggs—which are rich in protein and other nutrients—can help fight malnutrition, many farmers with small flocks find that it’s more economical to let the eggs hatch, sell the chicks, and use the money to buy nutritious food.

But if a farmer’s flock is big enough to give her extra eggs, or if she ends up with a few broken ones, she may decide to cook them for her family.

When I was growing up, chickens weren’t something you studied, they were something you made silly jokes about.

It has been eye-opening for me to learn what a difference raising chickens can make in the fight against poverty. It sounds funny, but I mean it when I say that I am excited about chickens.” Curated from www.gatesnotes.com

Reason Number Two – I’m Never Eating Anything From an Animal Known as a “Node”

Knowing that someday my food could all be from a genetically engineered “animal” makes raising chickens all the more appealing on several levels!

If eating GMO grains is a big no, no then why in the world would I want to eat genetically engineered food? But this is the type of thing that is coming at some point in the future, whether it becomes the sole source of food in some futuristic world is anybody’s guess.

We and when I say we I mean the United States have already began to take genetically engineered chickens from China, that is when it’s not rat, and who know what else.

If you really want to eat healthy and provide a way for your family now and in the future eat healthy, then it stands to reason that you should grow your own food, as much as you are able to anyhow.

“Goodbye chickens and cows! Scientists have developed a single animal capable of producing milk, eggs, meat, and grain.

Finally, a better way to produce food than farming!

Are we really replacing these with something called a foodnode?!? Lord I hope not!!

Using innovative genetic engineering technology, scientists from Virginia Tech have succeeded in merging all your favorite plants and animals together into a single creature, so pretty soon everything in your fridge will be produced inside one of the amazing new animals they’re calling a “foodnode.”

“We believe foodnodes can someday be used to replace current farming practices, which waste miles and miles of land on crops and livestock,” said Dr. David Hausler, a researcher from Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Whether it’s beef, chicken meat, milk, grain, or the eggs that come from the foodnode’s udders, you can make everything a human would want to consume.”

I can’t imagine that a foodnode would taste better than chicken, but I suppose it is possible, but unlikely.

“Most recently, researchers produced a foodnode with pork membrane removable from the rear,” added Hausler. “This will revolutionize American farming as we know it.”

So, how long before foodnodes start replacing America’s farms for good? Well, scientists say current foodnodes have lifespans of approximately two minutes, but it’s only a matter of time before these gentle beasts change how America produces and consumes food!” Curated from www.clickhole.com

Reason Number Three – Chickens Deserve to Be Treated With Respect

If beating poverty or helping those who are impoverished and genetically engineered meat aren’t enough reason for you to raise your own chickens, then maybe this last reason is the one that will sway you.

The chickens you buy from the store are not treated very well and that should matter to you.

I’ve been raising chickens for a while now and yes I do eat them, but I would never treat them cruelly or raise anything that was a mutant and couldn’t stand under its own weight, that in and of itself is reason enough to raise “heirloom” chickens.

Heirloom chicken produce plenty of eggs, get large enough to produce plenty of meat and really are wonderful to have!

“Many people have no idea that the chickens bred to lay eggs are completely different from those consumed for meat.

Egg-laying hens are bred not only to produce an unnaturally large quantity of eggs, but also to be small so that many can fit into one cage.

By contrast, “meat chickens,” also known as “broilers,” are bred to grow so fast that their bones can’t even keep up, reaching market weight at just around 48 days!

So many big companies are making commitments to do away with eggs from caged hens. It’s time we started a conversation about the treatment of chickens who are bred and killed for meat.

Such wonderful creatures that provide so much to us, they certainly do deserve our respect!

Chickens bred to grow so large so quickly often become crippled under their own weight and suffer from cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks.

The unfortunate birds used to breed these meat chickens are restricted to one-third of what they would naturally eat to prevent them from reaching their growth potential and dropping dead.

Chickens account for more than 95 percent of the animals killed for food in the U.S. Nevertheless, not a single federal law, not even the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, protects these intelligent animals from abuse during their lives on factory farms.

Without legislation to protect these birds, it’s up to companies to implement impactful animal welfare standards, and up to consumers to do away with products that are the result of extreme animal suffering.” Curated from www.mercyforanimals.org

Beating poverty, eating non- genetic engineered food and preventing animals from suffering are all good reasons to raise your own chickens for fun, food and self-satisfaction!

Plus they make great “guard dogs” are quite self-sufficient if you have a little room for them to range in and they really do taste significantly better than anything you get from the store.